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I am not certain, but I believe this new story from the AP is a rare follow-up to this initial report of a shootout that took place on June 30. The original story says it happened in Michoacan while the new story is in a small town in Estado de Mexico. There are corresponding details–the “gang” consisted of 21 men and one woman–that lead me to believe this is the same incident.

In all of my efforts (and those of many others) to track the death toll in Mexico during the past 7 years, it is very rare that any information is released on the numbers of military deaths. Years ago, there was one odd report of a death toll of about 200 soldiers–this in contrast to a civilian death toll at the time of nearly 100,000. I could be wrong, but I do not think there is ever any official reporting on deaths in the Mexican military. And as this AP story notes, there are many incidents reported in which the army encounters what are reported to be “gangs of criminals” and kills them all–no witnesses and few or no military casualties noted…

The shootout was the most dramatic in a string of battles in which the army says criminals fired first at soldiers who then killed them all, while suffering few or no losses. There have been so many such incidents that human rights groups and analysts have begun to doubt the military’s version.

From the details described below and the fact that the United Nations’ High Commission on Human Rights was on the scene shortly after this massacre, it appears that the people killed inside the building were shot at close range. It is gratifying to see the AP reporting on this… Thanks to Margie Lilly for sending me the article. I would have missed it… -molly

An eyewitness testifies to the killing of 22 people by the Mexican Army in Tlatlaya… The earlier stories are here for background. The new revelations are reported by ESQUIRE MEXICO. Also below, a shorter version in English reported by AFP.

During the day that US Ambassador Anthony Wayne visited Ciudad Juarez, two heads were found in garbage bags near a maquiladora on Avenida Talamas Camandari in the city. IT is the 4th finding of mutilated bodies/body parts in the city so far this month. Also yesterday in the southern part of Chihuahua state, the bodies of 5 students from Parral were found near the Chihuahua/Durango border. The report says that the students were from the city of Parral, Chihuahua and according to witnesses they had been abducted by an armed comando unit last Saturday in the area of San Miguel de Badiraguato, Sinaloa and disappeared without a trace. When their bodies were found yesterday, they had been shot dead and showed signs of torture. The report says the bodies were found by the military in a rural area near the border of Chihuahua and Durango. The family is said to be from Parral with links to residents of Chihuahua towns Balleza, Atascaderos and Guadalupe y Calvo.

Victims identified are: Rita Cristina Gutiérrez Escobedo, 25, student at the Tecnológico de Parral, Karina Estefanía Gutiérrez Escobedo, 19, student of the Escuela Normal de Parral, Teresa Escobedo Martínez, Marco Alberto López Martínez and Esteban Ponce Escobedo, whose ages were not given but they are said to be very young.

Information was released that in the investigation of this multiple homicide, two soldiers were shot to death in a confrontation in Guadalupe y Calvo, but they have not been identified. The bodies of the 5 victims were taken to a funeral home in Parral while the destination of the soldiers’ bodies is unknown.

The original, unedited article is posted [here] with the author’s permission. I am working on a translation of the article and hope to post it tomorrow. The article refers to a study from the Rice University Baker Institute by Tony Payan and Guadalupe Correa Cabrera. That report, Energy Reform and Security in Northeastern Mexico, is available here. -Molly

AUGUST 10th 2014:

Though not stated explicitly in the article below, we can see parallels with government tactics that began in Ciudad Juarez back in 2008 when the army moved into the city. Shortly afterward, many public security leadership positions were occupied by retired military officers and what the government called a “war against organized crime” resulted in the murders of more than 11,000 people in the city as well as thousands of reported disappearances. The article details a similar project in Coahuila, now the epicenter for privatization of the oil industry. We see how state officials cooperated with the Zetas and then with the federal security apparatus to remove possible obstacles to the development of new underground reserves that could revive the lagging fortunes of Mexico’s most profitable economic sector. And perpetrated a huge increase in homicides and forced disappearances in the region. For more details on the operations in the region, see the Aljazeera America piece by Ignacio Alvarado Alvarez and Michelle Garcia. -Molly

THE VIOLENT RE-DESIGN OF COAHUILA

Ignacio Alvarado Alvarez Translated (with permission) by Molly Molloy

Saltillo, Coah. Mexico — In the summer of 2010, the municipality of Piedras Negras, Coahuila could boast statistics showing that it was the 10th most livable city in the country, according to the Quality of Life Index of the Strategic Communication Office [Gabinete de Comunicacion Estrategica, http://www.gabinete.mx/]. With a population of nearly 200,000 and an urban marginalization/poverty rate of barely over six percent, the residents lived in the calmest and most pleasant Mexican border city. But these conditions were about undergo a shocking change.

One segment of the population that for years had made its living moving drugs across the river emerged out of the shadows in this year, and was not only seen doing business in the open, but also exercising an excessive level of power that soon erased the high quality of life reported by the above-mentioned communications company. Men armed with rifles went into the streets, took over control of security in the city and began to demand payment of extortion in exchange for not murdering or kidnapping businessmen and other prominent citizens.

Everyone was aware of the existence of the Zetas—they established here the most important criminal hegemony in the area, while forces of the state did practically nothing to oppose them. The government’s official version was that the power of the Zetas was of such magnitude that there was no way to confront them. But, going beyond the official version, there were elements which outlined a different reality: revealing links between a corrupt group of government officials in whose jurisdiction lay millions of pesos in hydrocarbons.

“(In Coahuila), we have become aware of a new criminal system that involves organized crime working together in a systemic way with federal, state and municipal authorities and law enforcement. This new model—functioning via sophisticated webs of corruption—reveals the new relationship that exists between the State and crime,” said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Government at the University of Texas in Brownsville.

Thanks to Mexico’s energy sector reforms, the potential of these deposits will raise Mexico’s petroleum production to a level not achieved since the 1970s. But advances have been held back by the private investors’ fears of the violent climate in recent years.

The report published by Rice’s Mexico Center places the regional violence within the context of powerful economic interests. It is not the version imposed by the government of a war between cartels for routes to the United States, nor is it the concept of “La Plaza,” [territorial control by various criminal organizations]. Rather, the struggle is for control of the more than 120,000 square kilometers (70,000 sq. miles) of the Burgos Basin and its enormous gas reserves.

The Mexican northeast is preparing to become a more influential region whose enormous semi-desert expanses shared by Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila will put stratospheric earnings into the pockets of the owners of the land surface as well as those who control the exploitation of underground hydrocarbon deposits.

In December 2013, the federal government inaugurated a super-highway from Mazatlan to Durango that will soon extend to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico. This route from the Pacific to the Gulf crosses states where 19 million Mexicans live and which generate wealth equivalent to 23 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Mazatlan will not only become the Pacific port of entry to the United States, but also the gateway to Asia, currently the greatest market for hydrocarbons, according to the report by Correa and Payan, entitled Energy Reform and Security in Northeastern Mexico.

“What seems curious to me is that there is a close relationship between the disputed regions, that is, those with higher levels of violence, confrontations between sicarios and between them and the armed forces, as well as the subsequent displacement of people from their lands and businesses, and those areas rich in hydrocarbons, particularly in the Sabinas Basin and the Burgos Basin. And this petroleum and coal-rich zone is a very important region for the energy sector because coal is the key raw material for the development of the different hydrocarbon extraction processes,” indicated Correa.

According to Correa, the way in which the region became so violent involves a logic that is distinct from drug smuggling, or from the simple exercise of violence to control territory for crossing drugs, for extortion and kidnapping. She suggests the provocation of a brutal phase that could permit the establishment of a system friendly to those in privileged positions in the near future.

“There are elements that suggest the utilization of paramilitary tactics where it is not clear what the State’s role is in confrontations and mass executions,” Correa said. “Relationships between distinct actors are key because the new criminal model is being exported to diverse regions of the country.”

Coahuila is not only rich in oil shale reserves, but also in coal. The big mines that feed national electrical energy generation are in the central and northern region of the country, precisely where the rising crime wave began during the second half of the previous decade. It is the same region that includes the Sabinas Basin. The last remnant of the Burgos Basin runs just south of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande until it reaches Piedras Negras.

For decades the smuggling of drugs into the United States has operated without notable interruptions. Even during the violent period that came with the incursion of the Zetas onto the local criminal map, the traffickers rarely attacked the civilian population. Between 2005 and 2009, the first four years of the government of Humberto Moreira (former governor of Coahuila), there were 788 homicide cases in the state—a fourth of the number of murders committed in Ciudad Juarez in just one year in 2010.

It was in 2010 that the tranquility of the towns and cities in the basins and the mining regions came to an end and this change is reflected immediately in the statistics reported by the Executive Secretariat of of the National Public Security System (SESNSP). Between 2010 and 2011, Coahuila reported 1,067 homicides. But the demonstration of criminal power attributed to the Zetas is more intricate and complete than what the official numbers indicate.

In March 2011, dozens of armed men raided the towns of Allende and Nava, just south of Piedras Negras. They abducted some 300 people and demolished houses with heavy machinery in operations that went on for days according to testimonies of survivors.

Three years after this massacre, the state government says that it was an act of vengeance due to betrayal committed by previous partners of Zeta chief Miguel Angel Trevin~o, Z-40, captured by Mexican Marines near Nuevo Laredo in the summer of 2013.

Allende is located about one hour away from the 14th Motorized Calvary Regiment of Muzquiz, and 20 minutes from the military garrison of the Plaza of Piedras Negras. Military guards are also stationed at the checkpoint on the highway just outside of the town, but no one came to the aid of the unfortunate families in Allende.

“No one has yet dared to link one thing with the other, but when they do they will realize that nothing was spontaneous,” said a formerofficial of theprevious state government. “The opening of the doors to this cartel carries very specific signals that impact the everyday lives of everyone. And I was inside and I know how they operate. I was afraid because I know the tactics that the government used to take revenge on their enemies.”

Humberto Moreira, a professor who began his career teaching secondary school classes via television, together with his brothers and close friends, joined a political group that monopolized power locally at the three levels of government in less than two decades. As governor, his political successes far exceeded those of any of his predecessors. Among his accomplishments, he enabled his brother Ruben to succeed him as governor while he simultaneously rose to the higher position of national director of the PRI.

His leadership of the (PRI) party lasted only a few months due to the corruption scandal that erupted when it was revealed that he had accumulated a public debt under his governorship of more than 33 billion pesos [more than three billion dollars]. This unleashed an investigation that resulted in the ex-treasurer of Coahuila, Javier Villareal, being held in prison in the United States under accusations of conspiracy, money-laundering, fraud and various other crimes. Also accused is Javier Torres, the interim governor appointed by Moreira when he left to take the position of national director of the PRI.

Money was not the only scandal during his term of office.

In March 2011 several supposed leaders of the the Zetas were arrested in Coahuila, identified as Gerardo Hernandez Sanchez—aka El Gerry, and Pedro Toga Lara—El Guacho. Both of them took advantage of the protected witness program of the PGR (Mexican Attorney General), along with another presumed Zeta leader arrested in January 2012, Jose Luis Sarabia.

The three informants incriminated leaders of the federal, state and municipal police as members of the Zetas’ network of complicity. But the most relevant of them was Humberto Torres Charles who served as legal director of state health services under the protection of his brother Jesus who had been named by Moreira to the post of Attorney General of the state of Coahuila.

Before the judge, the three witnesses said that they had testified under torture and irregularities were also found in the case files. The state government officials accused by the PGR of creating the support network for the Zetas were exonerated in February of this year (2014). Neither was (former governor and national PRI director) Humberto Moreira convicted in the case of the billions of pesos in public debt.

But the idea that the Zetas operated with the consent of the former state government has also been suggested by the current state governor, Ruben Moreira.

“In 2011 (if not before) we were were at the point where the government was no longer in control, rather, organized crime had taken over,” Governor Moreira said in a statement to the newspaper Vanguardia of Saltillo (Coahuila) in December 2013.

In fact, Humberto Moreira was a governor who avoided the responsibility of attacking organized crime. Rather, he delegated this function to retired military officers—he has stated this himself—who were appointed to the posts of municipal public security and other leadership positions in the state police.

“What did I do as governor? I went to (Secretary of Defense) General Guillermo Galvan and I said: ‘General, give me a hand here,’” said Humberto Moreira in an interview with journalist Ramon Alberto Garza, published in Reporte Indigo in October 2012.

The freedom provided to the Zetas during the governorship of Humberto Moreira ended when his brother took over the office.

Before he assumed the governorship on December 1, 2011, Ruben Moreira held a meeting with the federal security cabinet in the headquarters of the Secretary of Government (Gobernacion) in Mexico City. He was brought up to date on the strategy that would be utilized to annihilate the (Zeta) cells of Miguel Angel Trevino and Heriberto Lazcano.

At this meeting he was told: “We are going after them, governor. Are you with us or not?” One of Ruben Moriera’s collaborators recounted this to the former government official. “Well, of course, I am with you,” responded the governor-elect, according to the same source.

“Ruben, like any good politician, had observed that the Moreira trademark was going down because of the debt problem and the corruption. And (Felipe) Calderon, despite the fact that he was in his last year as president, was stronger than ever. And this information gave me a lot of clarity to understand why he (Ruben Moreira) had become more ‘calderonista’ than Calderon,” said the former advisor.

The new state government established the Armed Special Tactical Group (GATE, a SWAT unit), which would lead the offensive against the Zetas. They assassinated a nephew of Z-40 and in response, the Zetas ordered the execution of Jose Eduardo Moreira, the son of Humberto Moreira. The assassination was carried out on the afternoon of October 3, 2012.

“This act marked a turning point in the new configuration of organized crime and the fight against it. After the death of Eduardo Moreira, the Zetas start losing their most visible leaders, beginning with Heriberto Lazcano. The end of this period comes with the arrest of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. From this point, the Zetas take on a much lower profile, and begin a new phase with the development of a successful transnational criminal enterprise,” according to Guadalupe Correa of the University of Texas at Brownsville.

In fact, the numbers of homicides were on the rise during 2012 and 2013, totaling 1,416. Nevertheless, the most terrible legacy were forced disappearances—some 8,000 people—according to the estimates of the organization, United Forces for Our Disappeared [Fueras Unidas pro Nuestros Desaparecidos, Fundec] in Coahuila—made up of victims’ family members. At this stage, the evidence gathered through their own investigations cannot clearly discern which operations are carried out by forces of the state, which by paramilitaries or which are perpetrated by narco-trafficking groups. They are left with the sensation of an enormous complicity.

“This is a criminal system that at this point we cannot see how far it goes,” said Raul Vera, Bishop of the Diocesis of Saltillo and the principal supporter of Fundec. “We are going to assume that there is a tiny and tenuous difference between what is assumed to be a political organization of the country and what are narco-trafficking organizations or cartels. But today, you just don’t know where one ends and the other begins. The line is blurred because the corruption is at such a high level that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other.”

Drug addiction in Juárez represents a daily drug-trafficking market of about $2.3 million, according to files disclosed by online whistleblower WikiLeaks.

The leaked file cites a Mexican official who is referred to only as “MX-1.” During a meeting with U.S. and Mexican officials, the official identified as MX-1 said “that Juárez has a drug abuse problem which amounts to about 30 million pesos a day.”

“It’s a 30 million peso a day market for Juárez, with anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 individuals,” MX-1 said. “He (MX-1) added, for example, they know that most of the people that are participating in the kidnappings are addicts,” according to the leaked file…

Note the low-ball numbers of dead and disappeared in the LATimes story: “Since then, more than 70,000 people have been killed and more than 20,000 have gone missing, some of whom were last seen in custody of the military.”

I recommend careful reading of this article by Dana Priest of the Washington Post… A few paragraphs are highlighted. There is also an excellent graphic at the link showing the very small number of Mexican military and police killed since 2006…the number is significant, but not when compared to the 100,000+ civilians killed and the 25,000+ disappeared.

After reading this article, I’m struck by this sub-headline below: Violence deepened ties

I think we should ask: “Did the violence deepen tie (between Mexican and US security forces) OR did the deepened ties increase the violence??

The article confirms many of the operations revealed by the Wikileaks files on Mexico and covered in detail by Narco News Bulletin. The article also describes some detail about the long-standing and extremely close relationship between Mexican security forces (especially CISEN) and the CIA dating back to the 1980s. The information on US drones being used in Mexican security operations is especially interesting and troubling…I highlighted the paragraphs on the lack of effects on the supply and price of heroin, cocaine and other drugs in the US, despite the extremely high number of Mexican deaths. The main thing missing from the article is any hint that there is no information to be able to determine that the dead are indeed cartel criminals. But, we can’t have everything.

I think it is interesting that this NYTimes article mentions only General Garcia Ochoa and that the DEA suspicions of him stem from reports of events back in 1997. That was the same year that another top Mexican General and “drug czar,” Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was discovered to be working directly for the Carrillo-Fuentes (Juarez) Cartel. In fact, the NY Times has many stories on General Guitierrez Rebollo at this link.

Not all of the articles are available, but just a scan of the headlines and dates will give you an idea. For more links, see:

It seems quite a missing piece in today’s article that the name of General Gutierrez Rebollo is not mentioned at all… But the article is well worth the time. Just leaves me with more questions than answers. Considering recent killings in Coahuila, we might wonder what General Garcia Ochoa was really up to there… molly

For those who care to look back at the record, the reports of severe human rights abuses in the current Mexican context first came to light just a few DAYS after the Mexican Army troops came to Juarez in March 2008. Municipal police walked out in protest; citizens protested home invasions and abductions, notably in the Valle de Juarez. One of the most vocal protesters was Josefina Reyes–she was later murdered by the Mexican Army… Here are her words from early summer, 2008:

“Now you see all these big billboards, ‘We [the army] have come to help you’ — but it isn’t true. They have come to pillage us, to ransack our homes. They take the food in the refrigerator, jewelry, anything . . . and they destroy property. It is not a secret who they are.”

There are many Mexicans who have documented the abuses carried out by the Mexican military against the Mexican people. It is about time that the international community take note… molly

Borderland Beat has a translation of a Proceso article about a soldier–a military nurse–assigned to the border crossing at Piedras Negras/Eagle Pass. This soldier tried to stop a load of drugs being passed through the checkpoint by his fellow soldiers who were actually working for drug dealers. When the soldier tried to do his job by firing his weapon at the ground, the corrupt soldiers called for reinforcements… In the confusion, one soldier dies from a ricocheting bullet. The nurse who tried to stop the smuggling is shot numerous times in the legs and sent to a prison hospital where his legs are amputated. He is also convicted of murder for the death of the smuggling soldier he wounded… The details of how the video evidence is ignored by the military judges is even more interesting. And how the soldier who tried to stop the criminals is smeared in the press. I think the key phrase in the story is when the corporal working for the narcos screams at the army nurse:

The transportation of the drug load was approved and arranged by military higher-ups and the honest soldier who tries to do his job ends up losing his legs and accused of murder and in prison. I’d also like to add a correction to the Borderland Beat translation of the Proceso headline: MUTILATED AND IMPRISONED…FOR DOING HIS JOB (that is…for carrying out his duties in a disciplined manner…)

There are many comments at the link to the Proceso story. I would like to pose the question of why incidents like this one that are covered in the national press in Mexico (Proceso is the most important news magazine in the country) are consistently ignored by the U.S. and other international press? Is it because this reality challenges the standard view of the Mexican government and the US government that the Mexican Army are all good guys and fighting the good fight against narco-traffickers? I would note that this one soldier who tried to do the job he was assigned to do was completely surrounded by soldiers at all levels transporting drugs. And in addition to his severe injuries, he is also destroyed by the justice system. molly

Here are the articles on the lack of police in municipios in northern
Chihuahua. I posted more or less unedited google translations below…
(except that google translated CIPOL as “Man from UNCLE”… thought I would
share that in case anyone remembers that TV show from the 60s…)
In short, the articles go back over some of the incidents in the different
towns since 2008 when the Army first moved into the territory in force.
Many police have been killed, many have fled and the new forces have very
few untrained recruits and almost no weapons or equipment. The first
article gives a good idea of the geography of the region and the scope of
the problem…The final article from Milenio shows army troops poised to
move into the region before the elections. Based on the huge increase in
violence that began with the army incursions in 2008, these actions by the
governor and the Mexican army may not inspire much confidence.

Four years after the mayors of the municipalities surrounding Juarez
exposed facing the worst crisis of insecurity, the situation worsened.
Organized crime disrupted the operation of the public safety of three, and
two have a poor corporation.

The most affected municipalities are Guadalupe, Praxedis G. Guerrero and
Ahumada, since their bodies were scattered police completely, while Janos
corporations and Ascension have very limited functions due to lack of
personnel and equipment.

The newspaper reports that the file calls for help were made since 2008,
when the mayors of these municipalities and their police chiefs presented
at a meeting convened by the State Government that the border between
Mexico and the United States was a secure area so deficient.

The security of the border by agents was hardly finished high school and
most were improvised, as few were instructed to exercise sufficient care
and preventive police, exposed the leaders.

Corporation Praxedis the women make

A radiograph of the five municipalities shows that after the onslaught of
organized crime, little has been done to give people greater security.

For example, the Municipal Public Security Bureau of Ascension, has only 25
items, divided into 12-hour shifts.

“In the morning shift are 12 elements and 13 at night. The working day is
12 hours, “said an officer interviewed yesterday afternoon.

He explained that the operating personnel to patrol on board out of five
patrols.

This town is bordered on the north by the American state of New Mexico on
the east by Ahumada and Juarez, on the south Nuevo Casas Grandes and
Buenaventura on the west by Janos. It has an area of 11 thousand square
kilometers.

Janos Township is located in the northwest corner of Chihuahua, and
bordered on the south by the municipalities of Casas Grandes and Nuevo
Casas Grandes, Ascension to the east, west to Agua Prieta, Sonora, and
north of Hidalgo County American state of New Mexico. It covers an area of
6 000 930.50 square kilometers.

This area is monitored for 24 radiopatrulleros working in shifts of 12
hours and only have 4 patrols to move.

Township abuts the northwest Guadalupe Juarez, on the northeast by Praxedis
G. Guerrero-which is entirely surrounded by its territory, on the west by
Ahumada, and south with those of the Sotol Coyame and Ojinaga, across the
Rio Grande, and borders the County of El Paso, Hudspeth County, the Jeff
Davis County and Presidio County.

It covers an area of 6 000 200.50 square kilometers. Here the corporation
was completely disjointed from December 2010, when the agent Erika Gandara
Irma Archuleta was “lifted” and then murdered.

The 28-year officer was found dead on February 12, 2011 in the sewage canal
at the kilometer 60 of the Juárez-Porvenir highway in the municipality of
Praxedis G. Guerrero, said the Attorney General (EGF).

Erika was deprived of liberty by gunmen who broke into his home. Since then
the Directorate of Municipal Police found headless.

Praxedis entirely restricted to the municipality of Guadalupe and the
counties of El Paso and Hudspeth. Although the authorities claim that the
corporation operates normally, the staff is made up of women who have no
official arms and make crime prevention work.

In the municipality of Ahumada, launched the call to recruit police
personnel and is in the training process. For the time being watched by
only seven officers who have no weapons and have three patrols.

Although not border, adjacent to border communities and is used as a
crossing point for the smuggling of drugs, guns and stolen cars.

All municipalities have been referred to the loss of life in its entirety
and even executives, sets the file journalism.

Villa Ahumada-The people of Villa Ahumada are defenseless against a
possible onslaught of organized crime, said the Municipal Public Safety
Director, Mario Santiago.

With just seven policemen and unarmed possible, is to provide security to
just over 8 thousand people.

The latest attack against this corporation drug occurred in the last
municipal administration and led to the resignation of all the elements,
who fled the village after the murder of his immediate boss and two of his
companions.

The waiver of the 12 municipal police officers joined the chaos that
prevailed in the government headed by Fidel Chavez Molina, who had three
directors of Public Safety. The newspaper file states that the commander
Enrique Solis Martial, who was the first director of police, died in a car
accident two weeks after taking office.

He was replaced by Adrian Barron, who six months after taking office was
arrested on April 8, 2008 by the Mexican Army in a narcofuneral.

In May of that year, the last commander died in a clash between gunmen and
police. A command killed six people, including the police chief and two
officers who accompanied him.

“The military said the weapons and the corporation then practically
disappeared,” says Mario Santiago. The surveillance was put in charge of
the now defunct CIPOL and military personnel.

Support takes two hours, arriving in Juarez police

“Here we are virtually defenseless, the elements are functions of guards
and none of them carries a firearm”, he says.

To address the need to establish a police force as required by the Mexican
Constitution, the present city administration launched the call to restore
the Municipal Police. However, very few citizens answered the call.

The owner of the corporation states that managed to recruit 15 men, aged
between 20 and 35, which are currently on academic preparation at the C-4
of the city of Chihuahua.

“When they graduate the Attorney General’s Office will handle the
collective license with the Secretary of Defense, once they are certified
and registered hope that we allocate sufficient weapons element,” he
explains.

The corporation has three units, including two late-model, two cells and
radios. Nothing more.

With just seven guards, four ministerial police and prosecutor assigned to
the investigation of crimes, most of a family or minor offenses, Villa
Ahumada is practically at the mercy of criminal groups that are fighting
for this territory , which appears to favor its enormous illicit activities.

EGF in the north only appointed four police investigators and support if
required, must wait at least two hours in moving from Ciudad Juarez. That
happened last Tuesday, when the body of a young man was exposed to the sun
just over two hours at the point where he was killed.

: Land without law?

Dozens of breaches of the border municipalities of Praxedis G. Guerrero and
Guadalupe, adjacent to Villa Ahumada, which allows drug traffickers,
weapons and stolen cars evade military checkpoints installed at the
Juarez-Mexico Highway.

The same goes for the area of Puerto Palomas de Villa and the border port
Jeronimo-Santa Teresa, also with long dirt roads that connect with this
community borders.

Villa Ahumada has been the scene of violent acts featured, as the
confrontation at the ranch El Vergel, which left 21 dead, or, a slaughter
recorded on another property with seven men victimized, including the
landowner.

In this community are few and poorly trained police officers. Speaking of
the police coordinating the Public Safety Director, Mario Santiago, says
that when violent incidents occur as reported earlier on Tuesday in the
municipal cemetery, can hardly intervene.

Therefore limited to await the call of the competent authority in case you
need support. “If the prosecution asks us our support to cordon off the
crime scene, for example, that would be our share, nothing more,” abounds.

He hopes that in the coming months and have a formal and armed police.

Meanwhile, he points out, the work carried out will be preventive and
simple presence.

It will strengthen security operations, by the police forces and the army,
in the municipalities of Villa Ahumada and Meoqui, where in recent days has
picked up the climate of insecurity.

Photo: Juan Jose Garcia Amaro

Ciudad Juarez • All security institutions, with the support of the Army,
will be on high alert to ensure the safety of the population during the
elections held the first of July, said the governor of Chihuahua, Cesar
Duarte Jaquez.

The governor said he has been developing several meetings with officials of
the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) for the purpose of coordinating
security operations to be implemented on Sunday in this entity.

“The IFE has already had meetings with us and we will continue to ensure
the safety of people who come to exercise their right, where Chihuahua is
in the best conditions for the process to develop in peace,” he said.

“I am convinced that we have a high civility Chihuahua and I am absolutely
clear that we will get a peace process, and above all, looking for that
once the process of harmony and agreement remains in force,” the president.

He emphasized that no one should be troubled process, “democracy can not go
anywhere near the violence, but that democracy must be accompanied by peace
and social harmony, for that is the democratic exercise to regulate the
healthy coexistence of society. ”

In this context, he said that will strengthen security operations, by the
police forces and the army, in the municipalities of Villa Ahumada and
Meoqui, where in recent days has picked up the climate of insecurity.

Duarte Jaquez announced that met with the commander of the 5th Military
Zone, and Chief of Joint Operation Chihuahua, Emilio Landeros Zarate, to
review security strategy applied in this state to combat insecurity.